🔬 Category

oncology

115 papers

Oncology is the dynamic field dedicated to understanding and treating cancer, a complex group of diseases where cells grow uncontrollably. This area of study spans everything from identifying genetic mutations that drive tumor formation to developing new therapies and improving patient care strategies. Because cancer research moves at a rapid pace, staying updated with the very latest findings is essential for both experts and the curious public.

At Gist.Science, we curate the most recent preprints in oncology directly from medRxiv, ensuring you have immediate access to cutting-edge research before it undergoes formal peer review. We process every new submission in this category, transforming dense scientific manuscripts into both plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries. This dual approach makes critical discoveries accessible to everyone, regardless of their background in medicine or biology.

Below are the latest oncology papers added from medRxiv, complete with our simplified explanations and full technical breakdowns to help you navigate the latest breakthroughs in cancer science.

🔬 oncology

OVM-200, a recombinant overlapping peptide vaccine, breaks immune tolerance to survivin in patients with advanced solid tumours: a multicentre, open-label, dose-expansion, phase 1 study

In a multicentre phase 1 study, the recombinant overlapping peptide vaccine OVM-200 was found to be safe and well-tolerated while successfully breaking immune tolerance to the self-antigen survivin by inducing robust humoral and cellular immune responses in patients with advanced solid tumours, with higher immune responses correlating with stable disease.

Wan, P. K.-T., Morris, T., Forster, M., Zhang, T., Flynn, M., Chamberlain, F., Tuthill, M., Thistlethwaite, F., Williams (…)2026-11-10
🔬 oncology

Diagnostic Value in Discarded Reads: Re-evaluating Multi-Mapping cfDNA Fragmentomics and GC Bias in Early-Stage Cancer.

This study demonstrates that multi-mapping cfDNA fragments, typically discarded in standard pipelines, exhibit a significant excess in early-stage breast cancer compared to matched controls—particularly within centromeric and heterochromatic regions—and remain robust to GC bias and sequencing depth, whereas conventional fragmentomic features lose predictive power under similar technical controls.

UPPALURI, K. R., Challa, H. J., Vempati, K. K., Kadali, L. N.2026-11-07
🔬 oncology

Spatial neighborhood organization shapes clinical heterogeneity in Ewing sarcoma

By analyzing single-cell and spatial data from 135 Ewing sarcoma patients, this study identifies eight distinct spatial niches that stratify tumors into four clinically relevant subtypes with varying survival outcomes, notably revealing a favorable "Immune Reactive" subtype driven by tumor-intrinsic interferon signaling.

Luo, H., Henon, C., Rukhovich, G., Ranft, A., Kutschmann, S., Wilhelm, N., Jabar, S., Koch, L., Rutz, S. P., Mathioudaki (…)2026-11-03
🔬 oncology

Reduced POLD3 Expression Induces DNA Damage and Telomere Shortening in Colorectal Cancer Cells: A Potential Mediator of Colorectal Cancer Risk Variants

This study demonstrates that reduced POLD3 expression in colorectal cancer cells induces DNA damage, telomere shortening, and cell cycle arrest, providing a functional mechanism for how POLD3 locus risk variants contribute to colorectal cancer development and prognosis.

Clarkson, E., DeLeoN, N., Aldulaimi, S., Tomlinson, I., Roberts, T., Lewis, A.2026-11-02
🔬 oncology

Which Attention Helps? A Slide-Level Ablation of Attention-Augmented CNNs for Serous Ovarian Carcinoma Grading

This study demonstrates that under rigorous, leakage-free slide-level evaluation for serous ovarian carcinoma grading, transfer learning and the avoidance of weak channel-only attention configurations yield the most significant performance gains, while finer attention mechanisms and pathology foundation models provide no detectable improvement over a pretrained MobileNet baseline.

Rani, A., Mishra, S.2026-11-01
🔬 oncology

Treatment patterns and outcomes of pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma in a resource-limited setting: A retrospective study from a tertiary hospital in Ethiopia

This retrospective study from a tertiary hospital in Ethiopia reveals that while pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma survival is significantly improved by multimodality therapy and completed chemotherapy cycles, outcomes remain suboptimal due to high rates of treatment abandonment and a predominance of high-risk disease, underscoring the urgent need for enhanced access to comprehensive care in resource-limited settings.

Semayneh, S. W., Liyewu, B. T., Yohannes, K. G., Mekonnen, G. A., Fekadu, A., Zerihun, S., Aman, M. A., Reta, D. T., Jem (…)2026-10-31
🔬 oncology

A regenerative stem cell phenotype marked by ANXA1 defines aggressive colorectal cancer biology

This study demonstrates that an aggressive colorectal cancer subtype characterized by ANXA1-enriched regenerative stem cells, distinct from LGR5+ homeostatic cells, is associated with specific molecular features, a macrophage-rich stromal microenvironment, and poor patient prognosis.

Rotte-Wettig, H. S., Domingo, E., Valbuena, G., Nasreddin, N., Harkin, A., Iveson, T., Saunders, M. P., Oien, K. A., Mak (…)2026-10-30
🔬 oncology

Claims-based reconstruction of the pancreatic cancer care pathway links centralization of care to survival

Using Czech health administrative claims data, this study found that treatment at complex oncological centers and surgery were significantly associated with improved overall survival for pancreatic cancer patients, whereas multidisciplinary team review showed no statistically significant survival benefit.

Laubr, D., Tichopad, A., Rybar, M., Bielcikova, Z., Lovecek, M., Rozanek, M., Donin, G.2026-10-20
🔬 oncology

Diagnostic accuracy of deep learning for microsatellite instability prediction in gastric cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrates that deep learning models applied to H&E-stained pathology images achieve good diagnostic accuracy for predicting microsatellite instability in gastric cancer, though further validation in standardized, prospective, multicenter studies is needed to confirm their clinical utility.

Du, Y., Liao, H., Li, J., He, Y., Di, J.2026-10-15
🔬 oncology

No decline in functional status or cognitive function during the first year after treatment initiation for early-stage breast cancer in women aged 75 years and older: a prospective observational matched cohort study

This prospective matched cohort study found that early-stage breast cancer and its treatment did not accelerate functional or cognitive decline in women aged 75 and older during the first year compared to cancer-free peers.

van der Plas-Krijgsman, W. G., Blom, J. W., Derks, M. G. M., van Dalen, T., van Gerven, L., Guicherit, O. R., Lans, T. E (…)2026-10-15